intensify into a major hurricane. it's 10:00 a.m. eastern. i'm lindsey reiser in new york in for ana cabrera. it's going to be a busy hour with not just one, but two court hearings getting under way in legal cases against former president trump. in atlanta we're watching the first major hearing in the elections interference case brought by d.a. fani willis. mark meadows, one of the co-defendants, is trying to get his case moved to federal court. willis has called on multiple witnesses to testify in this morning's hearing including georgia secretary of state brad raffensperger who we know was on the line for that infamous phone call in which former president donald trump wanted to find around 11,000 votes. in washington lawyers have arrived for the federal case into trump's election interference case. prosecutors want to get started in january. trump's team wants it to begin in april, april of 2026. joining us right now is nbc's justice correspondent ken dilanian, blayne alexander in atlanta, and greg bluestein is a political reporter for the "atlanta journal constitution." christy greenberg is a former federal prosecutor. good to see you all. blayne, first walk us through the arguments in atlanta today. i understand we're also learning more details about the arraignments. >> reporter: yeah, lindsey. that's where i'll start. that is breaking news. we have an arraignment that is on the calendar for former president donald trump, september 6th at 9:30 a.m. that is what has been entered. of course, there are still a number of questions around this. would he appear in person? would he appear virtually? would he wave his appearance altogether? we don't know. we do know that has now appeared on the docket. there's a date set for rudy giuliani at 9:45 on ha same day, and the others to follow after that. certainly that's what we're watching and that is the backdrop that we're now seeing this hearing in federal court get under way, set to start at 10:00 a.m. mark meadows, the former white house chief of staff is the one who made the appeal to say, listen, because i was acting in my federal capacity as the chief of staff at the white house at the time of his alleged actions, he believes this is a matter that should be heard in federal court. he and several others have made that claim. the former president has not yesterday filed for that removal. legal experts expect his is sure to come at some point. so what happens today really could have a big impact on how this case is tried, where this case is tried and what it looks like going forward. the other piece of this, lindsey, is we are expecting to hear for the very first time fulton county d.a. fani willis lay out a portion of her case. this is something that's in the works for more than two years. she's been investigating for quite some time. she's called secretary of state brad raffensperger to the stand to be able to subpoena today. remember, he is the person who was at the receiving end of the phone call that launched this entire thing. certainly hearing from him in open court would be notable. now, i do believe we have video of mark meadows this morning. i'm not quite sure. i do believe we have video of that as well. again, all that is happening at 10:00 a.m. while we're watching two different hearings in two different federal courtrooms. >> it looks like we're watching video of trump's attorneys walking into the d.c. case. before we pivot gears, blayne was talking about the testimony of brad raffensperger. how rural is that testimony, and do you think this is almost going to be a preview of a trial, what we can learn about fani willis' case. >> i think blayne is right as usual. this is a preview. we could be hearing from brad raffensperger and three others who were also subpoenaed including two other people on that infamous phone call. thaif might not end up being called to testify, but it would be very notable if we could actually hear them in public in open court laying out their view of that phone call which, of course, we've heard so many times over the last few years. this is one of the most consequential pretrial motions that we're going to see, because some legal experts say, if this succeeds, if meadows emotion succeeds, it could mean all the defendants' cases get moved to federal court. why does that matter? for one thing, it means there will be a broader jury pool, from ten counties in metro atlanta than fulton county which is a democratic stronghold that joe biden captured with 72% of the vote. it also likely means there will not be tv cameras in a federal courtroom. >> are we talking about all five of the people asking for their cases to be moved to federal court or literally all 19 defendants? >> yeah. this is a question that will be the subject of many motions and court filings, but there are some legal experts who think that all of the 19 defendants' cases could be removed to federal court if this motion succeeds. we'll have to see and there will be appeals. we've quoted several experts who say they think all of them could be moved. >> christy, i'm curious your thoughts on meadows' immunity argument and why that would work differently in federal court as opposed to state court. >> i think his immunity argument is really a loser. what he would have to show is he was acting in his official capacity as chief of staff to the president, and that he has a plausible immunity defense in order to remove his case to federal court. i think he fails in both respects. first, i think it's abundantly clear from the indictment he was not acting in his official duties. in fact he was acting in violation of the hatch act which basically says you can't engage in campaign activities and political activities in your official capacity. in terms of his immunity defense, it's a very similar analysis. was he doing anything that was in his role in the executive branch? really what he was trying to do with these various acts, the perfect call to the georgia secretary of state, calls to the georgia secretary of state investigator, is really find ways to either slow or delay the certification of the count. that is not anything that's within his capacity as a chief of staff. so i think these arguments will fail, but it will be an interesting hearing today to hearing from the witnesses themselves about what mark meadows' role specifically was in those acts. >> greg, are you hearing from your sources whether any of the co-defendants who were asking for their case to be moved to federal court, if that fails, whether they will follow the likes of kenneth cheese borrow and ask for a speedy trial? >> we would imagine they could. it takes a spreadsheet right now to track all the comings and goings in this decision. we have five seeking to move to federal court. we expect donald trump to be pushing for the same motion. we have two defendants now seeking a speedy trial. some want to slow this down, some want to speed it up. the judge and the litigants have a lot to work out over the next few weeks. >> switching gears to the d.c. case and the federal investigation case into alleged election interference, ken, we know judge chutkan is on the stand, told the court neither date, neither the one the plaintiffs or the defendants are proposing is acceptable. what can you tell us? >> that's right. judge tanya chutkan is nothing if not prompt. she scheduled the hearing at 10:00 a.m. she immediately dove into it. the two sides could not be farther apart on when this trial should start. jack smith was proposing a trial date of january, and the trump side wanted it to be april of 2026. the judge said both of you are too far apart and neither proposal is acceptable. we do expect her to set a tentative trial date during this hearing. that may or may not hold. there's a lot of variables that go into this. it will give us a sense of how she is thinking about this case, how complex it is; how difficult it will be for the defense to discovery. they're complaining they're dealing with 11.5 million pages of documents that the special counsel is returning over to them. they say we live in a digital age, you can do key word searchs. by the way, a lot of this material has been made public by the january 6th congressional committee. now we'll see how the judge views this case and whether she thinks she can get it to trial before the november 2024 election. >> kristy, based on the limited information we know right now, what information can you glean about where the judge will land here? do you think the judge will keep in mind the georgia case and fani willis says she wants to bring this to trial as early as march 4th. >> i'm not surprised the judge has rejected both schedules. the government's schedule is too aggressive. provides less than one month from when discovery is substantially complete, less than one month from that date to make pretrial motions. that's very quick. usually you have at least three months to review substantially complete discovery before you make your motions. but the defense's schedule is also completely unreasonable and has a ton of delay tactics. you have a year of status conferences they propose before they make their motions for a month or two and then another year of pretrial motions and conferences. so there's really no need for that. there is a lot of discovery, but it is searchable. so somewhere in between i think is somewhere where she will land. there's an interest here, a strong public interest in a speedy trial. i would expect you'd see something more in the spring of 2024 in advance of the election so this trial can go first. i do think that the judge has likely also talked to other judges, conferred with, for example, judge marshon in new york who has a march 2024 trial on the calendar. likely has had those discussions about scheduling. i think you can expect this trial in d.c. to go first. it is the most serious. it's the most cabin with one defendant. i think that will go first and will go sometime in the first half of 204. >> ken, i want to ask you something that judge chutkan just said on the stand, essentially saying setting a trial date should not depend on personal or political obligations here, that the defendant will have to make this work regardless of his schedule. does this track with what we've heard from judge chutkan in the past? >> reporter: ashs, lindsey. from the bench, the judge echoed the point kristy just made, the societal interest in a speedy trial. she said mr. trump, like any other defendant will have to arrange his schedule around this criminal proceeding. he's not special because he's running for president. again, she said there's a societal interest in providing a speedy trial, not just a consideration for a defendant. the act was defined, the speedy trial act she means with the public interest in mind. she said delay is not an uncommon defense tactic. not only is it not uncommon, it's clear in many cases delay is his number one tactic, in the atlanta case, in the federal cases. his lawyers and pressed and pressed and pressed for delays and delays and delays in these cases. >> kristy, we know trump hasn't been shy with the delay, shutting the cases down. is that something you think judge chutkan will be weighing? >> absolutely. the consequent of delay here could not be more serious. if he's able to delay past the election and he wins or another republican candidate wins, they can either pardon if there was a conviction, or if there's not a conviction yet, they can tell their attorney general to dismiss the case. so the consequences for the federal cases of delay means all of this can go away. the state cases don't have the same -- there's not the same ability to shut them down, to pardon them. so the state cases in that respect, there's less of an urgency from a public interest standpoint of having those go first. i do think you'll see the federal cases go first. i think judge chutkan's in particular will be the first criminal trial. >> we know the judge is referencing -- we understand that trump has cases in other jurisdictions, referencing dpaktly what we're talking about. how tricky do you think all of this scheduling will get? >> tricky. there's no overseer, no overarching schedule maker in washington that has oversight overall this. you can have collision courses with different trials, different litigation. it's important to note that just as she just said, in georgia, even if this is removed to federal court, the case would still be tried under georgia state law. if donald trump is convicted, he couldn't pardon himself because it's a state's case. even if moved to federal court, this action would move forward. there's no governor that can pardon him and no president who can pardon him under georgia law. >> we will continue monitoring both of these hearings. ken dilanian, greg bluestein and christy greenberg, my thanks to all of you. police say the shooting by a white man in jacksonville, florida, that left three black people dead was racially motivated. pages the gunman left behind. tropical storm idalia poised to rapidly intensify as it moves through the gulf. we'll have the latest on the storm's track. also, did donald trump's debate absence open the door for any other candidates? 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(vo) learn more. it's your vision, it's your verizon. new details are emerging on what police say was a racist attack in jacksonville florida. the white shooter who targeted black shoppers at a dollar general store purchased his weapons 100% legally. the fbi is investigating the crime as a hate crime. let's bring in nbc's gabe gutierrez from jacksonville. what are we learning and what is the president saying about this? >> reporter: good morning. we're just learning that president biden spoke with florida governor ron desantis about the approaching tropical storm. but the president also expressed his pledge of support following this horrific shooting. the president also spoke with a local mayor and the sheriff here. the president has noticed the significance that this racist rampage happened on the 60th anniversary of the march on washington. this morning the jacksonville community is grieving the stunning loss in the death of three people in what police say was a racially motivated attack. the fbi is investigating the shooting as a hate crime. the gunman, 21-year-old ryan christopher palmeter sent racist rants to law enforcement, media and parents, expressing his desire to kill black people. officials releasing video of the gunman in a tactical vest before he opened fire in the parking lot and inside a dollar general store saturday afternoon. >> he let self people out of the store. why i don't know. some were white. i believe there was a couple that were not. >> reporter: victims, angela carr, gerald deshaun gal i don't know and anolt a.j. la gary. gal i don't know worked hard to take care of his 4-year-old daughter. >> all my grandbaby says is where is my daddy. >> reporter: before the shooting, the gunman stopped at nearby edward waters university, historically black institution where a school security officer saw him and called police to report a suspicious person on campus. >> what he did is totally unacceptable in the state of florida. >> reporter: governor ron desantis vowing to provide more secure to florida hbcus, but facing boos from the crowd. new curriculum standards including a controversial provision that some slaves developed skills that could be used for their personal benefit. >> that means they develop skills in spite of slavery not because of slavery. >> reporter: meanwhile authorities say the shooter who took his own life when officers arrived lived with his parents in this home outside jacksonville. a suicide note was found in his bedroom. an ar-style rifle and a handgun, covered in swastikas were recovered at the scene. >> his sickening ideology is not representative of the values of this jacksonville community. >> reporter: the gunman had no criminal record. when he was 15 he was held for 72 hours for an involuntary mental health evaluation. lindsey. >> gabe gutierrez, thank you. turning to another tragic story involving gun violence. this time in south carolina. a 20-year-old college student is dead after accidentally trying to enter the wrong house just down the street from his college, according to local police. it happened in the early morning hours on saturday. when police arrived after getting report of a home burglary they found the body of nicholas donofrio on the front porch with a gunshot wound to his upper body. police are still investigating. a recovery mission is under way for three marines. what we know about this tragedy. a strengthening storm. tropical storm idalia expected to quickly intensify over the coming days. the new alerts issued this morning along the gulf coast. morning along the gulf coast hello patrick mahomes! hut...hut...? 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ask your rheumatologist for rinvoq. and take back what's yours. learn how abbvie could help you save. i may be known for my legendary football career, but truth is, i love a bunch of sports. the only trouble is knowing where to find them. that's why i got xfinity. so, i can easily find and watch whatever sport i'm into all in one place without missing a thing. even if it's football, australian football, or football football. in a word—it's fitz-credible. i got to trademark that one. this season, eligible xfinity rewards members can get up to $100 off nfl sunday ticket from youtube. sign up for xfinity rewards now. an already busy 2023 hurricane season shows no signs of slowing. this morning there are new warnings in place along florida's gulf coast with conditions prime for tropical storm idalia to rapidly intensify over the coming days as it moves over the warm waters of the gulf. florida governor ron desantis warning floridians should expect a major impact. >> there really doesn't seem anything to prevent it from continuing to strengthen. this is going to be a major impact. and floridians should expect that this storm will be a major cat 3-plus hurricane. >> nbc's meteorologist michelle grossman is joining us for the latest. what do we know about the path right now? >> it looks like it's going to hit the west coast of florida within the next 48 hours. overnight it was stationary. starting to pick up speed, 7 miles per hour, 8 miles per hour. once it gets into the gulf we'll see it blossom. right now it's a strong tropical storm at 65 miles per hour, 90 miles south of the western tib of cuba, east of the yucatan, west of cuba. keep in mind the gulf waters are bath-like, not just at the sea level, but deep down. that's really going to ignite this storm. it's going to be the fuel that the storm needs. as we go throughout time today, probably cat 1 by later this evening. then lit blossom into a category 2 storm. it's going to make landfall as a category 3 storm maybe north of tampa. keep in mind this can jog over the next 36 hours. we're expecting landfall early wednesday morning. pay attention to the cone, not just this line. it will make landfall. it will weaken. we're going to see a lot of rain, gusty winds. we could see up to a foot of rain in some spots and life-threatening surge as well. then it's going to move over the atlantic, impact portions of the southeast. pay attention to the carolinas as well. high tide could cause problems on thursday. we have tropical alerts up and down the west coach. tampa, you're included in that. we also have a tropical storm watch, a tropical storm warning. so this is going to start to take action later tuesday. we'll start to feel the impacts then. by wednesday we'll see that landfall. we have storm surge alerts all up and down the coast, too. this is life-threatening. storm surge is a wall of water that ush ps on land. what does that mean? how does that impact us. storm surge is the deadliest threat from a hurricane. we need to keep that in mind and heed the warnings. stay informed today and get prepared over the next day or two. six feet of water could break doors and windows. we're expecting up to 11 feet of storm surge in some spots. lindsey, we'll continue to watch over the next 48 hours. >> how much is the summer's heat a factor? >> we're looking at really warm waters, bath waters. that's a big impact. that's a fuel for the storms. 70% of the earth is covered by oceans. 90% of it is being absorbed by the sunshine, so really warm waters. that is absolutely fuel for the storms. that's why we're seeing it blossom as it hits the gulf of mexico. >> michelle, thank you so much. >> sure. we're going to turn to the recovery efforts under way in australia this morning after a deadly helicopter crash killed three u.s. marines. officials say 23 marines were on board the as spree aircraft for a routine training exercise when it crashed off an island off australia's northern rp coast. sarah james has the latest from australia. >> reporter: the crash happened just one month after four australian soldiers were lost in a helicopter crash during separate training exercises between the two nations. this morning recovery efforts under way on melville island off the coast of main land australia. three u.s. marines died in the tragic crash in an aircraft similar to this one, which occurred while transporting troops in a routine military exercise. its cause still under investigation. >> the emergency operations center will now focus on the recovery of the three deceased marines with dig any. >> reporter: all 20 survivors rushed from the remote location to the city of darwin where eight remain in hospital. u.s. ambassador to australia, caroline kennedy praised australia's swift response and ongoing support. >> this tragedy and the recent loss that australia also suffered reminds us all how grateful we are to those who serve in uniform. >> reporter: the crash occurred sunday off the coast of northern australia after the aircraft left darwin and flew towards the tiwi islands 50 miles away. >> at a time like this, we reach out to our american brothers and sisters in order to express our condolences. >> reporter: some 2500 personnel from the u.s., australia and nearby countries were taking part in training exercises. this is not the first fatal accident involving the as sprow. a tilt rotor hybrid which can take off and land like a helicopter and fly like a plane. in june last year, five marines died in an as spree crash in california. investigators say a catastrophic mechanical failure the cause. as the investigation continues, those in australia's northern territory say their first duty is to the survivors. >> i would just like to reassure the families who are on the other side of the world, that we're caring for your loved ones. they're getting the best care possible. >> reporter: president biden took to x, formerly known as twitter, saying jill and i send our deepest condenses to the families of the marines who lost their lives in this deadly crash. officials here tell me the training exercises will continue, but they will not take place on the island that was the site of the crash. the investigation continues. back to you. >> sarah james, thank you. we have breaking news this morning out of florida that we want to bring you. a broward county fire rescue helicopter has crashed into the building that you see on your screen near pompano beach. these are live pictures here. according to our south florida nbc affiliate, that structure is a one-story apartment building. three people were on board. two people have been taken to the hospital. the faa and ntsb are investigating. we'll bring you updates as we get them. we still have our eyes on the d.c. courthouse. a live update over what we're hearing in the courtroom over donald trump's federal election interference case next. al elect interference case next you need sinex saline from vicks. just sinex, breathe, ahhhh! 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astrazeneca may be able to help. ask your doctor about breztri. i'm your football-obsessed-best-man. and i think you having your big day, during the big game, is the worst. what are you kidding me? physically i'm right here, but mentally, i'm here. yeah, “i do” c'mon speed it up. so, when all eyes are on you, my eyes are glued to the game. touchdown! yeah! and if you didn't bundle your home and auto insurance... all of this...this could be tough to tackle. so, get allstate and be better protected from mayhem... like me. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ get it with gurus. cargurus. this morning south carolina's two presidential candidates are holding competing events in the state. with both nikki haley and tim scott making their case to voters, the biggest news in the republican race is coming from their neighbor to the west, georgia, with the trump campaign saying his georgia mugshot helped them rake in more than $4 million on friday, the most in a single day since the campaign launched. let's bring in nbc news correspondent ali vitali in south carolina. how are haley and scott hoping to steal some of the spotlight from trump? >> reporter: in terms of stealing the spotlight, most candidates know that's tough going and probably impossible given the way trump has dominated the race. they have two competing goals here. for scott, it's try to push past last week's debate which was a lackluster performance from the join your senator and pressing ahead to making his case on the campaign trail among south carolinians. for haley, it's a homecoming, one where she's trying to keep momentum from her debate performance. we saw her show her credentials on foreign policy stage, on the abortion front trying to position herself as the only woman speaking about that issue on the field. policywise she's much like her male competitors in terms of wanting to back an anti-abortion slate of legislation. we saw her flex her executive muscles as not just a former two-term governor of this state, but also someone who was a u.n. ambassador. haley is contending with the trump of it all, as all of them are. she's trying to down play the way he's dominating even through legal troubles and the way she's talking about the guy she's going up against the guy she's going up in the general. watch. >> donald trump is a friend of mine, but the fact is, i don't know if it's four or five or six or how many indictments it is now. he's going to spend a lot of time in a courtroom and not on a campaign trail. my concern is we cannot have kamala harris as president. we can't chance this. >> reporter: this is an argument that haley makes often, lindsey, the idea that they are technically going up against president biden who is trying to defend for a second term in office. this is haley implicitly saying that she doesn't think joe biden will make it through his second term. i've actually asked her, is this exactly what you're trying to say. she has explicitly said she does not believe the president would survive a second term. of course, trying to make age not just the issue that's a central focus, but trying to make it one that applies to his vice presidential running mate, kamala harris. the biden campaign is trying to reframe it as something that gives him experience and expertise, something that's allowed him to get through all the ledge slating he did in his first two terms of office. for harris who has taken such a central role on messaging, on crucial things like voting rights and abortion access, she's sure to be in the crosshairs. haley is putting her there earlier than some of her republican competitors are. >> ali vitali thank you. let's bring in carlos curbelo and democratic strategist of the voter protection action fund, don calloway. don, i want your reaction to that and haley's strategy here with invoking kamala harris. >> it's actually interesting. this is not the first time we've seen that. we're all old enough to remember, republicans consistently have a boogie person, something to scare people with. years before it was ebola, then the migrant care veins. you see kamala harris walking into the squad, the young members who are members of congress who the republican party tried to paint as being too liberal to be in line with mainstream american values. they're reiterating that. i think it's fairly disgusting because they're implicitly saying that joe biden won't survive. at the same time it's wildly racist and sexist to simply point to their majority white electorate and say this is really who you're voting for. it's a massive dog whistle, but it's happened before with respect to the squad and kamala harris in the first election and in those congressional races. >> carlos, we mentioned the trump campaign breaking fund-raising records after the mugshot in georgia. here is the biden campaign saying how they'll tackle his legal woes. >> are trump's legal problems going to be part of your campaign against him? >> no. the president has said from the beginning that he wanted an independent justice department, so we're not going to comment. we're not going to focus on donald trump's legal problems. >> is this a smart strategy, carlos, or a missed opportunity here, and do you think it will change for the general? >> first thing i'll say on nikki haley is i know her, and i know she's not a racist. so you may disagree with her campaign tactics, but to say that she's speaking in a racist way i don't think is fair. on this biden strategy, i actually do think that this is probably the best approach for the biden campaign. there's a lot of people in the country who do believe that the justice system is being politicized, even though donald trump's actions are clear and obvious for everyone who cares to analyze them. but if it does appear that the biden administration is being too heavy handed, that they are using these cases, these indictments that have been presented against donald trump for his personal political gain, then the president could start losing some of the moral authority that he has over donald trump. some of that moral authority that gave him the victory in 2020 because so many middle of the red voters, independents went ahead and supported him because of all of donald trump's controversy. so i do think that it's a careful balancing act for the biden campaign, and that's probably the best approach. >> trump's wide margin over the rest of the field is just beginning to slip after he skipped the debate. the former president drops, as you see on your screen six points since the middle of august. obviously, look, still has a huge margin over the rest of the field. is there an opportunity for any other candidate at this point? >> there definitely is. i think donald trump made a rational decision by not attending the debate, he is so far ahead, and that's what candidates typically do in politics, especially in primaries. they don't show up because they don't want to help their opposition if they're lagging so forbehind, but donald trump is a person who needs to be in the spotlight. his biggest weakness comes when he's irrelevant. when people aren't talking about him. i'm not sure he can continue missing these debates. if he doesn't show up at the next debate, that will just give the spotlight to all the other candidates. it will give some of these candidates the opportunity to grow, to consolidate some of this anti-trump vote, and then it could become a closer race. >> so that's consolidating the anti-trump vote here. vivek ramaswamy said yesterday on "meet the press" he would push election law changes after january 6th. listen. >> in my capacity as president of the senate, i would have led through that level of reform. then on that condition certified the election results, served it up to the president, president trump, and signed it into law, and on january 7th, declared the re-election campaign pursuant to a free and fair election. i think that was a missed opportunity. >> don, your take? >> yeah, i think that red state andrew yang needs to exit stage right. he has said so many things that are fundamentally disqualifying at this point. the second amendment is why blacks got their freedom. he has a comprehensive energy plan that involves getting better and more efficient air-conditionings. he's also said that mike pence was wrong for not showing some heroism siding with the person who tried to destroy democracy. he's really just showing that he's not a serious person. he's not a serious thinker and government at this point, whether you choose to vote blue or red, should be left in the hands of experienced practitioners who know what they're doing. by the way, joe biden is an experienced practitioner, with all disrespect, it is fundamentally racist to create a scare tactic based in fiction around the idea that kamala harris would be your president. that's not true. there's no evidence that joe biden is in poor health. your leader, donald trump is a few years younger than him, and a lot of our american leadership at this point are senior citizens. i don't care whether or not you know nikki haley, to create a scare tactic, a strawman argument by saying what you'ring are doing is electing. >> i don't have a leader. i come on these shows to say the truth. i don't support any campaign or any candidate, so let's make that clear. i do think it's fair to say when someone is a vice president and when you're electing the oldest president in history, there is a decent chance that that person could end up leading the country if you don't agree with that person, if you don't think that person is competent enough to lead the country, it is fair game to campaign -- >> not really because you have -- you have to place that into the context of these type of people significantly being up and we've seen it before with the squad. that's why i mentioned it. >> okay, we got to go. thank you so much, we'll have this conversation again. i appreciate it. right now we do want to get to breaking news in the other trial involving donald trump. trump's former chief of staff mark meadows is on the stand in georgia testifying right now. he's trying to get his case moved from state court to federal court. meadows and trump are two of the 19 co-defendants charged in that sprawling racketeering case. back with us blayne alexander outside the courthouse in atlanta and christi greenberg, former federal prosecutors. >> reporter: there was a question whether or not he would show up. our cameras saw him walking in earlier this morning and then with tremendous thanks to our producer diane morales in the overflow room ran out to let me know meadows is indeed on the stand testifying. he's being asked about his duties as white house chief of staff and describing what his day-to-day looked like during the months he served really at the right hand of then president trump. he talked about the fact that it was a 24/7 job. he said he would get up early in the morning, describe the briefings he would receive on a daily basis and described himself as even the former president's personal assistant. so all of this of course kind of gives you a peek inside that courtroom. remember, the entire underpinning of this hearing today is meadows asking to move this to federal court because he says at the time of his alleged actions he was acting in his federal capacity as the white house chief of staff. a couple of other interesting points, we know that meadows and several others have asked to move their case to federal court. somebody who has not made that request is the former president himself. according to our producer, at least one member of trump's legal team was spotted inside that courtroom listening to those arguments. that lets you know they're watching this very closely and there could be a similar request from the former president to come. >> blayne alexander, thank you so much for that breaking news. christi, what do you make of meadows taking the stand and also the fact that one of trump's lawyers is watching this from the overflow room? >> well, it makes sense. in order for meadows to remove this case to federal court, he has to show that the conduct that is charged in the indictment that was being performed for the president was being done as an official duty in his role as chief of staff to the president, and so how do you prove that? well, you're hearing from mark med meadows himself saying there is an important interest here. being able to serve core functions such as arranging meetings, arranging phone calls. those are the kinds of things that he's going to be pointing to to say everything that i did that's charged in this indictment was part of my job. the problem is when he's subject to cross examination, i think they're going to -- the prosecutors are going to dig deeper and look at, well, what kinds of meetings were you setting up. what was the purpose of the call? and when they start to get into those kind of details, i think it's going to be very hard for meadows to make the argument that what he was doing in trying to overturn the results of a federal election actually was something that was being done in his capacity as chief of staff. >> okay. kristy greenberg, we will also have to leave it there. thank you so much for being with us throughout the hour on this breaking news. that does it for me today, i'll be back in for ana tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. eastern. "josé diaz-balart reports" is next. rt reports" is next get one free. for freeee. that's what i'm talking about. order in the subway app today. my frequent heartburn had me taking antacid after antacid all day long but with prilosec otc just one pill a day blocks heartburn for a full 24 hours. for one and done heartburn relief, prilosec otc. one pill a day, 24 hours, zero heartburn. every business done heartburn relief, prilosec otc. that's why comcast business de is launching theal. mobile made free event. with our business internet, new and existing customers can get one year of unlimited mobile for free. it's our best internet. powered by the next generation 10g network and with 99.9% reliability. plus one line of free mobile for an entire year. it's the mobile made free event-happening now. get started for just $49.99 a month. plus, ask how to get one free line of unlimited mobile. comcast business, powering possibilities. here's why you should switch fro to duckduckgo on all your devie duckduckgo comes with a built-n engine like google, but it's pi and doesn't spy on your searchs and duckduckgo lets you browse like chrome, but it blocks cooi and creepy ads that follow youa from google and other companie. and there's no catch. it's fre. we make money from ads, but they don't follow you aroud join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today. good morning, it is 11:00 a.m. eastern, 8:00 a.m. pacific. i'm josé diaz-balart. right now two major hearings are underway in two different criminal cases facing former president donald trump. msnbc has teams inside the courthouses in atlanta and washington and we will bring you the very latest developments. here in florida, 46 counties are under a state of emergency with tropical storm idalia forecasted to become a major hurricane as it churns towards the state's gulf coast. what we know about when and where it could